The IPSM Ottawa will be holding monthly letter writing nights where we
invite people to come and to write letters about various indigenous
issues, as well as to beging corresponding with prisoners and political
prisoners.

Our first letter writing night will be focusing on writing letters about
the current situation in Barrier Lake, as well as writing to prisoners and
to political prisoners.

We will provide contact information for different prisoners and political
prisoners.

most specifically in response to the threat that has been made by Indian
and Northern Affairs Canada that they will impose section 73 on the Indian
Act on the Community.

Section 73 of the Indian Act gives INAC the power to unilaterally impose
band council elections regardless of whether the community wants them.
Barriere Lake is one of 25 indigenous communities that governs itself
according to it’s traditional governance system.

The use of section 73 by INAC is something that hasnn’t been seen recently
and underscores the fact that, despite all of the empty rhetoric on the
part of the Canadian government about “new relationships” between the
Canadian government and Indigenous Nations, Canadian colonialism is still
alive and well, and more than happy to assert control over indigenous
people.